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Heterogeneous data, different definitions and incompatible models are a huge problem in many domains, with no exception for the field of energy systems analysis. Hence, it is hard to re-use results, compare model results or couple models at all. Ontologies provide a precisely defined vocabulary to build a common and shared conceptualisation of the energy domain. Here, we present the Open Energy Ontology (OEO) developed for the domain of energy systems analysis. Using the OEO provides several benefits for the community. First, it enables consistent annotation of large amounts of data from various research projects. One example is the Open Energy Platform (OEP). Adding such annotations makes data semantically searchable, exchangeable, re-usable and interoperable. Second, computational model coupling becomes much easier. The advantages of using an ontology such as the OEO are demonstrated with three use cases: data representation, data annotation and interface homogenisation. We also describe how the ontology can be used for linked open data (LOD).

The proficiency of ontologies as the formal explication of knowledge in different domains has motivated numerous software engineers to develop miscellaneous ontology editors. The recent propensity of ontology engineering community, collaborative ontology development, necessitates exclusive ontology platforms supporting collaborative aspects. Although a few research have strived to look over the collaborative ontology editors, they have not determined a complete list of requirements and benchmarks for their investigations. Therefore, collaborative ontology development requirements have been proposed in this research comprehending collaborative methodologies and platforms. Regarding to these touchstones, two existing categories of collaborative ontology editors have been explored here. The most discussed and applied instances of these platforms, wiki-based and non-wiki-based, have been enumerated in this paper too. The itemization, description, and evaluation of platforms can be fruitful for the ontology-based applications in future. The results of this research (in the context of an ongoing EU project) demonstrate that workflow support, reliability of software, and integration/representation/storing of changes are the prominent gaps of current collaborative ontology development platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]